Mr. Aveledo has been a key figure in building a unified force of all Venezuelan opposition political parties to restore democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela.

He is a former congressman from the state of Lara (1994-1998), elected in that period as the Chamber of Deputies' President (equivalent to the Speaker of the House in the US). Previously, he had served as President Luis Herrera Campins' Secretary of the Presidency (1979 - 1984).

Mr. Aveledo's visit to Washington is part of the MUD's efforts to engage the international community in supporting the Venezuelan democratic forces, and raise awareness about the current political crisis in the country.

WHEN: Thursday, June 20, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.WHERE: National Press Club,Fourth Estate Winners' Room.

WHO: Mr. Aveledo's meeting is sponsored by Venezuela Initiative and the Center for Democracy and Development in the Americas. The Venezuela Initiative brings together Venezuelan leaders, members of the Venezuelan Diaspora, foreign policy experts and opinion leaders interested in advancing democracy and promoting development in Venezuela.More information on theVenezuela Initiative andthe Center for Democracy and Development in the Americas is available at: .

VenezuelaInitiative @ CDDA

SOURCE Venezuela Initiative

BOSTON (Reuters) - An ex-convict and confessed murdered will be back on the witness stand Tuesday in the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger, accused of running Boston's "Winter Hill Gang" for decades and threatening to kill small-time criminals unless they paid protection money.

John Martorano, who previously described Bulger as a partner in crime, is the first of the accused mobster's top associates to take the stand in what is expected to be a three- to four-month trial in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Bulger has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including 19 murders that prosecutors say he committed or ordered in the 1970s and '80s. His rise from small-time crook in a gritty Boston neighborhood to one of the most feared criminals in the city's history - who then disappeared and spent 16 years in hiding before his arrest in 2011 - has captivated the city for years.

Martorano, who served 12 years in prison after confessing to 20 murders, on Monday told the jury he had been close friends with Bulger and other members of the gang, even naming his youngest son after Bulger and another associate.

"They were my partners in crime, they were my best friends, they were my children's godfathers," the 72-year-old witness said. He also testified to committing murders with Bulger in which Martorano was the gunman and Bulger drove a support vehicle as they eliminated rivals during Bulger's rise to power.

Bulger's story, which inspired the 2006 Academy Award-winning movie "The Departed," stands as a black mark on the history of Boston law enforcement. Prosecutors contend Bulger cooperated with a corrupt FBI agent, John Connolly, who took information on rival gangs but turned a blind eye to Bulger's crimes.

Bulger, 83, denies ever serving as an FBI informant. In opening statements, his attorneys said their client paid Connolly for information but offered none of his own.

Martorano said Bulger and Connolly, who both grew up in Boston's "Southie" neighborhood, first got in contact after Connolly met with Whitey Bulger's brother, William, a powerful Massachusetts politician who became the speaker of the state senate.

The outcome of that meeting was a request from William Bulger, Martorano said: "If you can keep my brother out of trouble, that would be helpful to him."

After his first meeting with Connolly, "Whitey" Bulger told his gang mates that the two would have a productive relationship.

"He said that they guy wanted to help him," Martorano said, adding that cooperation could help "keep the notoriety off Billy."

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Douglas Royalty)

As a result of his condition, Finley subsists almost entirely on intravenous nutrition drugs called total parenteral nutrition, or TPN. At night, his mother, Nicole Gerndt, hooks him up to pump that steadily infuses his blood with a white liquid concoction made of essential fats, vitamins and minerals over 10 hours. The liquid goes straight into Finley's vena cava, the largest vein in his heart.

"Sometimes in the morning he's up and still attached," said Gerndt. "This morning at 5:30 he wanted to get out of bed. "We'll say, 'You have your line [you have to wait].' ... He'll say 'Why?'"

When this system works properly, Finley is able to spend his daylight hours like any other kid. He can play in the dirt with his favorite toy cars and obsess about fire trucks. But when this finely-tuned routine is disrupted, Finley is at risk for suffering a host of nutritional ailments including anemia, calcium deficiency and generally feeling miserable.

Gerndt said that at the end of 2012 she began to get calls from the pharmacy that supplies Finley warning her that core ingredients in Finley's TPN, such as calcium, phosphate and selenium, were becoming scarce. Without these nutrients Finley is at a higher risk for suffering a nutritional deficiency during a key growth period.

There are only a few providers of TPN in the United States. The drugs are difficult to manufacture and if one batch of critical TPN components like phosphorous or calcium goes sour it can send ripple effects through the industry as another supplier tries to pick up the slack by filling the additional orders.

At the end of last year, one critical supplier of TPN, American Regent/Luitpold, temporarily shut down production to deal with quality control issues, according to the Food and Drug Administration. It is not completely clear that the shutdown of American Regent/Luitpold led to shortages in Finley's medication, but the FDA said the company was the sole provider of many TPN components and that other manufacturers of TPN had difficulty supplying additional orders that were supposed to be produced by American Regent/Luitpold.

Calls to American Regent/Luitpold were not immediately returned.

Patients reliant on TPN range from adult cancer patients unable to eat solid foods to premature infants lacking fully formed digestive systems. Many patients like Finley have gastrointestinal motility disorders, meaning they can't properly digest food, and rely on TPN to get all or most of their nutrients.

Pharmacists describe the TPN shortages in recent months as extreme. Dr. Steve Plogsted, a pediatric pharmacist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, works with American Society for Parenteral and Society (A.S.P.E.N.), is concerned that continued shortages will not only put patients in immediate danger but could lead to long-term health effects like bone malformations from calcium deficiency or stunted growth from a lack of zinc.

"People think it's just nutrition so it's no big deal," said Plogsted. "We're trying to allocate what we can. We give newborn babies what we can, because they don't have any stores. ... We don't know the long-term outcome for these little guys

A list of the TPN drugs that have waxed and waned over the last few years can sound like a periodic table pop quiz, with phosphorous, zinc, copper, selenium and chromium all making appearances.

Lose one essential element and you can't just replace it with a Flintstone vitamin. Unlike a meal, there are no extraneous components of TPN and the different components are carefully calibrated to provide people with the exact necessary nutrients to survive.

Phosphate helps muscles contract and is vital for patients on respirators, zinc helps people process specific enzymes, chromium joins up with carbohydrates so you can process sugars in the body. Lipids or fats are particularly critical for premature infants who have no additional nutrient reserves.

According to Gerndt, Finley's TPN has been missing calcium, selenium and phosphate at various times. As a result, Gerndt had to give him supplemental nutrition through his gastronomy tube, a tube in his abdomen that goes directly to his stomach. This means 9 times per day Gerndt has to wrangle Finley and inject a total of six ounces of medication into his stomach. Since Finley's digestive system isn't fully functioning, she worries that he isn't absorbing all the nutrients he receives through the g-tube.

In recent weeks, Gerndt said, Finley has become more lethargic and complains about his stomach becoming tight from the medication.

"We just try to focus on every day. I'm all choked up. It's just hard because it's not like [these drugs] don't exist," said Gerndt. "It is draining because life is challenging enough and this makes it more challenging."

In May the FDA announced it that they would import three additional TPN components from Norway for use in the U.S and expected to import others to alleviate the shortages.

Critical drug shortages have become a growing problem in the U.S. for the last few years. There are currently , according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. A 2011 Associated Press review of industry reports found that there had been at least 15 deaths from drug shortages in the prior 15 months.

In June 2012, the FDA came under fire in inthat cited the FDA's actions as a contributing factor in the large number of drug shortages. The report found that the FDA had sent a high number of warning letters to manufacturers, an increase from 474 letters in 2009 to 1,720 letters in 2011, which led to multiple major manufacturers going through remediation at the same time, which severely narrowed supply lines as they shut down manufacturing.

The report also found that the rise in regulation coincided with manufacturers having less financial incentive to make generic, injectable drugs. The report said that was partly caused by hospitals and TPN providers using group purchasing organizations, which could negotiate lower prices from manufacturers, and the implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003, which lowered the prices Medicare would pay for generic injectable medications.

Daniel Rosenberg of Hospira, a drug manufacturer the FDA cited as helping to provide supplemental drugs after the American Regent/Luitpold shutdown, wrote in a statement that the current shortage was related to the shutdown, "and the difficulty of ramping up production to cover for the unanticipated loss of production from that manufacturer."

Rosenberg did not address any other reasons for continued TPN component shortages.

FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly said that while the FDA can work with companies like American Regent/Luitpold to minimize the effects of the shortage, they do not have the power to demand manufacturers produce certain drugs or the ability to ensure the resulting product is safe for use.

"The reasons for drug shortages are complex and often outside of FDA's control. For example, the majority of drug shortages are caused by a breakdown in quality and manufacturing processes," said Kelly, citing problems with sterility or particulates in drugs as being common problems. "In fact, about 75 percent of drug shortages are caused by manufacturing issues."

As frustrating as the shortages for TPN have been for Finley and his parents, Finley's gastronomy tube, or g-tube, provides his parents with a secondary means of giving him nutrients. For other patients, such as premature infants lacking fully developed digestive systems, there is no back-up plan.

In neonatal and pediatric wards, pharmacists and doctors have had to make difficult decisions about who gets the TPN components and who goes without.

Plogsted said neonatal patients virtually always have the highest priority since they have no additional nutritional stores, but, in theory, this can mean not giving nutrients like zinc, key for growth, to a full-term infant with a heart problem.

Petra Cober, a neonatal pharmacist for the Akron's Children's Hospital, said that, with a lot of planning and extra work, she and her team have been able to stay "a couple of inches ahead of the shortages."

"We're limping by on the skin of our teeth," said Cober. "We have to dedicate a ton of time and resources to maintain that ability when it could be better spent working on other kids."

Cober said she and her team often meet with doctors to decide ahead of time which patients absolutely must have the nutrients and how other nutritional options, such as oral dosages of certain elements, could be used to keep all patients healthy. When a patient is on a lower dosage of a certain nutrient, it often means they have to undergo additional tests to ensure their health isn't compromised.

Additionally, the TPN shortages have been so severe in her region that pharmacists from nearby pediatric hospitals meet periodically to swap shortage stories and, if the shortages are really dire, they swap vials of different nutritional drugs to ensure no hospital is completely lacking an essential nutrient.

At one point after hearing about an impending lipid shortage, Cober purchased special oils, "as the emergency back-up of the emergency back-up," that could be used on some premature infants to provide them with lipids. It's a medical technique that became outdated when TPN was invented and that most of the doctors in the neonatal unit were unfamiliar with. Cober said she has never used the oils and is unlikely to do so, but they're still in her office in case there is an emergency.

"It's definitely been a struggle for [doctors] to understand," said Cober. "They really want to know why all of a sudden this went so south. When [medicine like] phosphorous is the crust of the earth, why don't we have something readily available?"

Cober said that in recent weeks the drug shortages have slightly eased and she is hopeful that the FDA imports from Norway were not a one-time event and that continued imports would help completely alleviate the shortages.

For Finley, Gerndt said she is glad that the FDA had allowed imports, but found no sign that they would significantly help her son.

The week after the FDA announced the Norway imports, Gerndt was told by her home health care pharmacy that there were no trace elements, including zinc and copper, available for Finley's TPN.

"That was one where I was like, 'They got to be kidding me,'" said Gerndt, who talked to her doctors about her concerns. "[I said], I think we're over estimating what Finley can take."

The 32-year-old has been on a New Zealand Rugby Union-approved sabbatical for six months in order to prolong his international career through until the All Blacks' World Cup defence in 2015.

Number eight Kieran Read has taken over the captaincy of the All Blacks for the three-match series against France, the second game of which is on Saturday in Christchurch.

"That's the plan (to play for his local club Christchurch) but how many of them (games) I'm still not sure," McCaw told Fairfax Media in Christchurch.

"I want to get through some training and depending on how the Crusaders go ... I want to start playing after I have done 11 or 12 weeks of pre-season and after that I will be ready to play."

McCaw was unsure as to whether he would be available, or wanted by the Crusaders towards the end of the Super Rugby season.

The seven-times champions have three games left to play in the competition when it resumes following the international break and are in the final playoff position in sixth place.

The playoffs begin on July 19, with the final on August 3.

"The first thing I have got to worry about is being ready to play - if needed. I would never go and play if I was 'almost'. I have got to be right," he added.

"And it has to be right for the Crusaders too. They have always said, if you are available and ready to go we will look at it. But if I am not needed, that is fine too."

He is expected to resume the captaincy for the All Blacks' defence of the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship against South Africa, Australia and Argentina in August.

(Reuters) - An Idaho man who admitted to breaking into a Boise zoo last year and killing a monkey was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday, court records show.

Michael Watkins, 22, of Weiser, Idaho, in March pleaded guilty to attempted grand theft, a felony, and misdemeanor animal cruelty stemming from the break-in and beating death of the monkey at Zoo Boise in November.

The primate was one of the zoo's two Patas monkeys, ground-dwelling animals from Africa that stand more than 2 feet tall and weigh about 35 pounds. They are rare in zoos but not endangered in the wild.

The case shook officials at the zoo and triggered an outpouring of sympathy and donations from animal lovers worldwide.

Watkins scaled the security fence at Zoo Boise in the pre-dawn hours of November 17 and attempted to steal the monkey, which bit him, police said. Watkins then kicked and hit the animal, severely wounding it, according to police. The monkey later died of blunt force trauma, zoo officials said.

Zoo Boise Director Steve Burns said on Thursday the sentencing of Watkins closed a particularly devastating chapter for the facility.

"We're moving on," he said. "The court has done its job and we're continuing to do our job."

In the days after the death, zoo staff sought to boost the spirits of the companion-less Patas monkey and considered shipping it to another zoo with primates since they are exceedingly social, Burns said.

Instead, Zoo Boise in December gained two female Patas monkeys donated by the Rosamund Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York.

News about the monkey's death brought donations from across the United States and overseas, allowing the zoo to begin construction on Monday of a $250,000 exhibit for the three Patas monkeys, Burns said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Bill Trott)

New hopes of box-office riches and franchise serials rests on Zac Snyder's 3-D "Man of Steel," the latest attempt to put Superman back into flight. But Snyder's joyless film, laden as if composed of the stuff of its hero's metallic nickname, has nothing soaring about it.

Flying men in capes is grave business in Snyder's solemn Superman. "Man of Steel," an origin tale of the DC Comics hero, goes more than two hours before the slightest joke or smirk.

This is not your Superman of red tights, phone booth changes, or fortresses of solitude, but one of Christ imagery, Krypton politics and spaceships. Who would want to have fun at the movies anyway, when you could instead be taught a lesson about identity from a guy who can shoot laser beams out of his eyes?

"Man of Steel" opens with the pains of childbirth, as Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) and husband Jor-El (Russell Crowe) see the birth of Kal-El, the first naturally born child in years on Krypton. The planet a giant bronze ball of pewter, as far as I can tell is in apocalyptic tumult (the disaster film has gone intergalactic), and General Zod (Michael Shannon) attempts to take over power, fighting in bulky costumes with Jor-El.

His coup is thwarted (though not before killing Jor-El, who continues on in the film in an Obi-Wan-like presence), and he and his followers are locked away, frozen until Krypton's implosion frees them. Baby Kal-El has been rocketed away with Krypton's precious Codex, an energy-radiating skull.

Kal-El rockets to Earth, setting up not a Midwest reprieve to the lengthy Krypton fallout, but a flash-forward to more explosions. Our next glimpse of Kal-El is as a young adult Clark Kent (the beefy Brit Henry Cavill) aboard a fishing vessel on stormy seas, where he shirtless and aflame saves the crew of a burning oil rig.

At this point, your Codex may be spinning. Working from a script by "Blade" scribe David S. Goyer and a story by Goyer and "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan, Snyder has clearly sought to avoid some of the expected plotlines and rhythms of the familiar Superman tale. There's a constant urge to push the story to greater scale a desperate propulsion that will surely excite some fans but tire others.

The film hops back and forth from Clark's grown-up life and his Smallville, Kansas, upbringing with Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane). Costner, back among the corn stalks, makes the strongest impression of the cast as a severe father urging Kent to hide his gifts.

We're meanwhile introduced to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams), fresh off a stint embedded with the military for the Daily Planet. Adams, as she usually does, helps animate the film, as she plunges into a bulldog investigating of Clark and spars with her editor (Laurence Fishburne).

Snyder brings to the film a sure hand for overly dramatic compositions that take after comic strip panels. He has a clearly sincere reverence for the source material (originally created in 1938 by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster). He's a filmmaker who, even with his last film, the abysmal "Sucker Punch," seems to precisely make the movie he intended.

Eager fans will likely thrall to the film's many overlong action set pieces, as Superman battles with Zod and his minions. There's little creativity to the fight sequences, though, which plow across countless building facades.

But Snyder doesn't have the material or the inclination to make "Man of Steel" as thought-provoking as Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy. Superman wrestles with his allegiance to humans or his home planet, but the quandaries of a superpowered man betwixt worlds doesn't have any real resonance. The gravity that cloaks "Man of Steel" is merely an en vogue costume.

While Snyder has succeeded in turning out a Superman that isn't silly (not a small feat) and will likely lay enough of a bedrock for further sequels, it's a missed opportunity particularly with a bright cast of Shannon, Adams and Lane for a more fun-loving spirit.

Cavill's performance is less memorable for his introspective brooding than for his six-pack (a fetish for Snyder, the director of "300"). He's handsome and capable, but one can't help missing Christopher Reeve's twinkle. At least he smiled.

The awkward acrobatics to modernize "Man of Steel" are most evident with its new explanation of Superman's shield. The "S," we are told, doesn't stand for Superman, but is a Krypton glyph meaning hope. But if "S'' doesn't stand for "Superman," ''Man of Steel" is the one with the identity issues not to mention a spelling problem.

"Man of Steel," a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language. Running time: 144 minutes. Two stars out of four.

___

Motion Picture Association of America rating definition for PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

The fear that rules this terrain, where residents are mostly Xinca Indians, recalls the bad old days of the country's three-decade-long civil war, which killed as many as 200,000 people. But what's brought in the troops this time are protests over plans by Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources Inc. to tap what the company says is one of the five largest silver deposits in the world.

Protesters say the project, called El Escobal, will drain or pollute the local water supply, and hundreds of people have blocked roads and burned buildings to stop it from going forward. That's tested President Otto Perez Molina, who sent in hundreds of troops and suspended the right to hold public gatherings in four townships near the mine in early May. It was the second time during his 16 months in office that he has declared a state of siege in response to protests against a foreign-run mining project.

With violence rising, the mine protests have now emerged not only as a threat to Perez Molina's young administration but also a warning to other foreign companies seeking to invest in the region. The residents of San Rafael, however, say they're been left with no choice but to fight. They also accuse the government of favoring foreign investors over communities.

"This is affecting us, we feel intimidated," said 18-year-old Miriam Munoz, whose nervous parents didn't want her to go to school because of all the soldiers and police outside. "The situation isn't going to change until the president comes to deal with it."

The company and its supporters deny the town's accusations, saying the mine will instead bring jobs and tens of millions of dollars to local governments and communities.

Andres Davila, the mine's coordinator of corporate communications, said the metal will be extracted through a flotation process in which the ore is passed through water. The process involves the chemical reagent zinc cyanide, which Davila said "is not discharged into rivers because it is reused at the same site."

"Half of the (mine's) employees are from San Rafael and 95 percent are Guatemalans," Davila said. "For every dollar, 35 cents will stay in Guatemala for taxes, royalties and voluntary contributions."

Claudia Samayoa, director of Guatemala's Human Rights Defense Unit, said the political damage has already been done.

"One interesting thing we have been finding in San Rafael Las Flores and the communities affected by the state of siege is that people who supported the president are telling us they no longer back him," Samayoa said.

A new poll by CID Gallup shows approval of Perez Molina's presidency nationwide falling 20 percentage points over the past year, from 68 percent in May 2012 to 48 percent this May. The poll, which was conducted between May 2-9 and had a margin for error of 3 percentage points, cites street violence and a lack of jobs for the fall.

Such conflicts are breaking out all over Latin America, where local resistance to foreign-driven mining projects have paralyzed whole regions and claimed dozens of casualties. At the same time, such projects have become ever more popular as world prices for copper, iron ore and other metals have boomed, driven in large part by growing demand from China.

In Peru, such protests have presented a major challenge to President Ollanta Humala, while similar outrage over foreign exploitation of local resources helped defeat presidents in Bolivia.

Activists say problems at the Guatemala mine began in 2007, when the owner at the time, Canada's Goldcorp Inc., came to San Rafael with an exploration license. In 2010, the mine was sold to Tahoe Resources.

"Since then the problems have aggravated," said Oscar Morales, president of the Community Development Council, which serves as a link between locals and political authorities. He spoke with the AP from a secret location where he has been in hiding since authorities raided his and family members' homes searching for arms. He said nothing turned up in the searches.

Morales said eight community consultations of 4,222 adults found that nearly all of them opposed the mine. He said he wants to hold another legally binding community consultation about the mine, but municipal governments have refused.

Yet the violence only grows more destructive the longer the dispute remains unresolved.

On Sept. 17, 2012, mine workers transporting tubes for electrical cables on the main highway in the region were stopped and held by townspeople opposed to the mine. The following day, unknown attackers set fire to mine warehouses and a patrol car. About two months later, enraged townspeople burned a hotel and stole dynamite belonging to the mine when authorities blocked a community meeting about the project in the nearby town of Mataquescuintla.

The deadliest clash occurred on Jan. 11, when a shootout between protesters and mine security guards left one farmer and two guards dead. Then, on March 17, unidentified gunmen abducted four members of the Xinca parliament in confusing circumstances. One ended up dead.

Faced with the growing violence, the national government announced the creation of a mediation commission, and on April 3, the government granted a 25-year exploitation license to the San Rafael mine "after it fulfilled all the requisites set by law," according to Davila. The mine has the necessary permits but is not yet operating.

After another protest left a policeman dead and six locals wounded, Perez Molina declared a 30-day state of siege that banned public gatherings and other civil liberties in four townships around the mine in Jalapa and Santa Rosa states. Some 500 police officers and 2,000 soldiers were sent to the area. The president later lowered the alert to a state of prevention, saying troops could no longer detain or arrest people without justification.

"It is not only because of problems at the mine, but also because of organized crime" that the emergency was decreed, said Perez Molina, but human rights organizations called the move a "criminalization of the legitimate demands of the population opposed to the mine."

Tahoe Resources vigorously defends the San Rafael project, which it expects to start operating before the end of the year. It says it has reached out to 2,000 locals to explain the benefits the mine brings.

Some people in the region laud the jobs it offers.

"My father and my brother work in the mine. I have received a scholarship from the mine. I think it is bringing development to San Rafael," said 17-year-old student Paola.

Many, however, are skeptical. They say the mine has already transformed the region, if only with all the troops and checkpoints that remain.

"What matters least is the money," said Vicente Morales, who lives 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from the mine. "What we don't want is that in a few years our lands no longer produce, that the environment is damaged, that the river is polluted."

To help your readers support their loved ones through these health issues and many more, the FDA's Office of Women's Health and the GSA's Federal Citizen Information Center have created the free Friends and Family Health Kit. It contains more than 20 publications that are quick to read, easy to understand, and feature health care and prevention tips for women and their families.

Abby, thank you for letting your readers know about the Friends and Family Health Kit, and for sharing advice we can all use to better care for ourselves and for one another. -- MARSHA HENDERSON, FDA ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH

DEAR MARSHA: Your letter is timely because we are in the middle of Women's Health Week, which runs from May 12-18. I'm always glad to receive your health kits because they are constantly being updated to reflect the latest information.

This year's health kits cover subjects that include recognizing health scams, preventing food poisoning, managing your medications from pregnancy to menopause, participating in clinical trials (which can be a lifesaver), controlling asthma, selecting a mammography facility, and staying safe with cosmetics and tattooing.

There is no charge for the Friends and Family Health Kits and they're easy to order. Just send your name and address to Friends and Family Health Kit, Pueblo, CO 81009; go online to www.promotions.usa.gov/dearabby.html; or call: 888-8-PUEBLO (that's 888-878-3256) weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. The publications can also be read online in PDF format, or be downloaded to your computer and printed out. Print supplies are limited, so don't wait to order them.

DEAR ABBY: I live in Alaska and have good friends I visit every summer on the East Coast. I have some acquaintances and former co-workers who live there, too. Many of them want me to visit when I come down. I have grown apart from these former friends and keep in touch only through occasional emails and Facebook.

Flying from Alaska to the East Coast is expensive and time-consuming. I really just want to rest and hang out with the friends I'll be staying with. Even when I avoid posting pictures of my vacation on Facebook until after the trip, I get comments or emails about me not stopping by or letting them know I was in town.

What's the polite way to tell these former co-workers and acquaintances that I don't want to spend my vacation time with them? Or should I just get over it and devote some time to them as well? -- TRYING TO BE POLITE IN ANCHORAGE

DEAR TRYING TO BE POLITE: If you have any desire to continue the relationships with your former co-workers and acquaintances, why not arrange to meet a group of them at an agreed-upon place one afternoon for a "reunion"? If you don't, then either ignore their comments or respond to the emails by saying you needed to rest, which is the reason you didn't socialize more during your vacation.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Good advice for everyone -- teens to seniors -- is in "The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It." To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

[More from BGR: ]

Most importantly, China Mobiles month-on-month 3G subscriber growth is the fastest in China. Chinas leviathan has demonstrated it does not need theto remain the fastest growing 3G player in the biggest phone market in the world. Tim Cook thought that he could force China Mobile into making some concessions by showing that its subscriber growth would slow without the iPhone. This wasand possibly another sign that Cook still has much to learn.

[More from BGR: ]

Now China Mobile has demonstrated it does not need the iPhone, while annualized iPhone volume growth dropped to under 7% in the March quarter. The balance of power at the negotiation table has shifted. If Apple opts to launch a new budget iPhone this summer, it simply has to get China Mobile on board if it hopes to gain ground in China. Having China Mobiles marketing muscle behind a mid-priced device that is given out for free for contract customers is invaluable right now.

Samsung is sizzling in China, racking up sales of in the first quarter of the year. That was twice the iPhones volume in China. Lenovo and Huawei sold 8 million smartphones each in China and are also threatening to pull away. Chinas portion of global smartphone sales is growing far faster than was expectedjust a year ago. North Americas portion is shrinking faster than projected, and North America is turning into a drag on Apple as it rapidly matures and Chinas global weight grows each month.

It is highly likely that sometime over the next few months, Tim Cook will have to accept whatever terms China Mobile is now offering him. Those terms may be far worse than what Apple could have extracted in early 2012 or 2011. But that is the price you pay for letting the biggest operator in the world to call your bluff.

This article was

Authorities have been searching desperately for motives in the abductions early Sunday at a bar just off the city's leafy, skyscraper-lined main boulevard, blocks from police headquarters and the U.S. Embassy. It followed the May 9 beating death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of the late Malcolm X, in a fight over a bill at another rough Mexico City bar. Two waiters have been arrested in that killing.

People who worked near the bar involved in Sunday's abductions long suspected it was connected to drug traffickers or criminals because of the shady characters, street disputes and flashy cars that were frequently seen outside.

But the mothers of those abducted said Friday that authorities may be too eager to look for a possible drug connection because of the fathers and the fact that the youths are from the rough-and-tumble Tepito neighborhood, known for decades as Mexico City's main contraband market.

The fathers of two of the youths were arrested in 2003 in connection with killings, robberies and drug dealing. It was not immediately clear which of those crimes resulted in convictions, but both men viewed as top criminal figures in Tepito are now serving prison sentences at maximum-security facilities.

Leticia Ponce, whose 16-year-old son Jerzy is among the missing, acknowledged that his father is convict Jorge Ortiz Reyes, alias "The Tank."

But she said nobody who wanted revenge for her husband's past crimes would have waited 10 years.

"If somebody wanted to do something to us, they would have already kidnapped us," said Ponce, shaking with sobs.

"It has nothing to do with this," she said of the disappearance of her son and his friends.

Rather than focusing on the youths' backgrounds, she said, authorities should recognize that the mass abductions that drug cartels have carried out for years in other parts of Mexico have now arrived in Mexico City.

"Today it is us, tomorrow who else will it be?" Ponce said. "Here in this city, this is already starting to be seen. Today it us, but tomorrow it could be your child, or yours," she said, pointing to reporters.

Josefina Garcia, the mother of 19-year-old Said Sanchez Garcia, also acknowledged that the youth's father, Alejandro Sanchez, has been in prison for more than 10 years on drug-related charges. Like Ponce, Garcia said her husband's past had nothing to do with her son's disappearance.

"My husband has been locked up for many years," Garcia said. "He doesn't have any problems with anybody, he doesn't mess with anybody. So that would be a long time for that to keep having consequences, right?"

Some residents of Tepito, a centuries-old, roughly 150-block area in the crumbling heart of Mexico City, had voiced fears that the abductions might be related to attempts by one of the country's drug cartels to move into Mexico City.

Presumably, the youths might have been abducted after refusing to work for one of the major drug gangs. City officials in the past have said the cartels sometimes move money or drugs through the city, but don't really base themselves or operate from the capital, in part because its crowded streets and 70,000-member police force make it hard to operate in the convoys and armed squads the cartels favor.

But in the narrow, winding, garbage-choked streets of Tepito, ranks of street-market stalls selling knock-off sneakers and pirated CDs cut off automobile access. Youths riding motorbikes, often two to a bike, are the main form of transport. Garbage is piled on previously agreed on street corners, and warehouses full of auto parts of dubious origin spill their contents out onto the streets.

Residents say many of the killings in Tepito are carried out by youths on motorbikes, the one on front driving and the one riding behind firing 9 mm-pistols.

Alma, a 21-year-old college-prep student, said it is common to see kids as young as 10 hanging out on the streets at all hours of the night, and noted that their role models are the men with flashy motorcycles and cars and no visible means of income.

So bad is crime here that local businessmen now fund a dark-clad, 17-member security force made up largely of tattooed ex-cons, who patrol the streets looking for thieves; once caught, suspects are turned over to police.

Miguel Barcenas, an imposing ex-cop dressed in black who heads the force, which is armed only with radios, said he's heard rumors about the cartels like the Familia Michoacana are coming in, but thinks Tepito is probably too tough even for them.

"There are people who say The Family are coming in, the Zetas are coming," Barcenas said. "But I don't really think that is going to happen, because the people here are very united, very war-like."

The mass kidnapping also focused additional spotlights on Mexico City's rough, largely unregulated bar scene.

The bar where the youths disappeared was operating with a different name than the one listed on an operating license that expired in 2009 and was never renewed. Nonetheless, the bar continued to operate openly. Humberto Huerta, a spokesman for the city borough office that is responsible for inspecting bars and other businesses, noted his office only has 16 inspectors to oversee 60,000 businesses in the borough.

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AP Writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report